Christ’s Death and Burial

We have covered much catechesis in a short time, but we have far to go. I know that I have delved into a more intermediate and advanced catechesis at times, but I am trying to keep things as basic as possible. For those who would like to get deeper into the Church’s De Fidei teachings, I would highly recommend a book by Dr. Ludwig Ott called Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma and I would also point you to our bookstore at the Marian Catechist Apostolate for other excellent catechetical and faithful Catholic reading material. It is an excellent source for all of The Church’s teachings on the Faith. One of these days I promise to get working on the Reading List also. On with the catechesis……

In death, our body and soul are separated from one another, it is actually that simple. When Jesus died, this is precisely what happened to Him, His soul was separated from His body. However, His Divinity remained united with both His body in the tomb and His soul that was separated from His body. I say again, Jesus’ Divinity remained united with both His soul and His body even though His body and soul were separated at His death. This leads us to the fact that Jesus’ body did not begin the decomposition process that all other humans go through at death due to original sin (except for The Blessed Mother of course who suffered no corruption at death due to Her Immaculate Conception). Jesus’ human body did not corrupt eventhough He had truly died, as seen in Acts 13 of Sacred Scripture ” [37] But he whom God hath raised from the dead, saw no corruption.” We also read this in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “627 Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was not a mortal corpse like others, for “it was not possible for death to hold him”470 and therefore “divine power preserved Christ’s body from corruption.”471 Both of these statements can be said of Christ: “He was cut off out of the land of the living”,472 and “My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.”473 Jesus’ Resurrection “on the third day” was the sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.474 “

So now that we are learning about the beautiful Catholic Faith, how can we put what we learn into action. With The Fourth Article of the Apostle’s Creed we commemorate the Passion and Death of Christ by participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass regularly, not just on Sundays, also by observing Fridays as obligatory days of penance ( like not eating meat or no internet or tv). Also by praying the Rosary and especially praying and meditating on the sorrowful mysteries is an excellent way of actually practicing this article of the Apostle’s Creed. Also, making the Way of the Cross is another wonderful way of putting into action what we learn in the The Fourth Article of the Apostle’s Creed.

May Almighty God protect us from the World, the devil, and ourselves. In JM+JT , Lee

ps please pray for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East that are being persecuted, threatened, tortured, and even crucified! They are truly bearing the heaviest of Crosses! Mother of Mercy, we beg you, pray for us!!!